Male organs on sale in Kenya

September 13, 2010 12:00 am

By BERNARD MOMANYI, NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 13 – Police in Nairobi have arrested a mortuary attendant and a driver of a funeral services company who were trying to sell male private parts.

The Kenyatta National Hospital mortuary employee and the hearse driver were apprehended on Monday afternoon after police were tipped off they were on a mission to sell the body parts.

“We received a tip off and laid an ambush and that is when we arrested these two gentlemen just as they were trying to sell the male private parts,” Kilimani deputy divisional Police chief Johana Cheboi said.

“We are equally surprised that this kind of business is going on here in the city… and it appears it has been going for sometime now, but we are now investigating all these issues,” he added as he displayed the bizarre cargo wrapped in a green polythene bag.

“On searching these two gentlemen, we recovered a polythene bag with the male private organs. It is a very sad situation because we have never encountered such a case before,” he added.

Criminal Investigations Department detectives were still interrogating the two men aged 36 and 26 at their offices at the Kilimani police station on Monday evening as curious onlookers thronged the station as word spread there was odd cargo in the premises.

“They (suspects) are very cooperative; they have told us how it all started and have even agreed to take us to the mortuary to show us the body where they chopped off these private parts,” one CID officer said.

He revealed that the suspects were nabbed outside a bank where they were waiting for the “buyer” of the private parts, unaware that there was a trap set up for them.

“It was a successful tip off and upon receiving it, we acted on it and we succeeded. The suspects are now helping us. We are going to get to the bottom of this matter,” he added.

On Monday afternoon, a van belonging to a Nairobi-based hearse company – where the driver who is being held works – was still being detained at the Kilimani police station.

For the better part of the day, the two suspects were shuffled from the station, mortuary and the CID headquarters as investigators pieced together evidence to gather a water-tight case against them.

“It is a very delicate case which if not well taken care of can just flop, that is why we want to collect all the necessary evidence to ensure everything goes on well,” Mr Cheboi said.

He revealed that part of the evidence being sought was a DNA test to match the male private parts with its body.

“Otherwise the investigation will be incomplete, everything must be matched clearly,” Mr Cheboi added and revealed that they planned to charge the suspects with “tampering with a dead body,” a charge which he was very serious.

BERNARD MOMANYI is the News Editor at Capital FM. He commands over a decade of experience in news gathering having worked in both print and electronic media. He holds a BSc degree in Information Sciences from Moi University and is now pursuing a Masters Degree at the University of Nairobi.